Explore the Family Name Klingensmith

The meaning of Klingensmith

Americanized form of German Klingenschmidt, an occupational name for a swordsmith or cutler, from Middle High German klinge ‘blade, sword’ + smit ‘smith’.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.

How common is the last name Klingensmith in the United States?

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the surname Klingensmith has seen a slight decrease in popularity between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, it ranked 9,019 in terms of commonality, dropping slightly to 9,186 by 2010, marking a 1.85% decrease in rank. Despite this, the actual count of individuals with this surname increased by 6.57% during the same period, from 3,332 to 3,551. However, the proportion of people named Klingensmith per 100,000 decreased by 3.23%, indicating that while the total count increased, it did not keep pace with the overall population growth.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#9,019	#9,186	-1.85%
Count	3,332	3,551	6.57%
Proportion per 100k	1.24	1.2	-3.23%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Klingensmith

In terms of ethnicity, the Decennial U.S. Census data shows interesting changes for the Klingensmith surname between 2000 and 2010. The majority of individuals with this name identified as White, although the percentage fell slightly from 97.90% to 96.85%. The most significant change was within the Hispanic community, where the percentage increased from 0.90% to 1.58%, marking a 75.56% increase. There were also increases in those identifying with Two or more races (up 45%) and Black (from 0 to 0.17%). Interestingly, the percentage of those identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander rose from 0 to 0.39%, while the percentage of American Indian and Alaskan Natives dropped by 57.58%.

	2000	2010	Change
White	97.9%	96.85%	-1.07%
Hispanic	0.9%	1.58%	75.56%
Two or More Races	0.6%	0.87%	45%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0.39%	0%
Black	0%	0.17%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0.33%	0.14%	-57.58%